LONDON, March 23 (Reuters) - The Ben & Jerry's Foundation, a non-profit funded by the ice cream brand, said on Monday it had won a court ruling to join a lawsuit challenging its ultimate parent company, The Magnum Ice Cream Company, over contractual obligations and independence. 

Unilever ( UL ) retains a 19.9% stake in Magnum, which formed when the consumer goods conglomerate spun off its ice cream unit in December. 

Directors from the independent board of Ben & Jerry's ( UL ), now owned by Magnum, have challenged the company's plans to appoint new directors and accused it of corporate overreach. 

Since 2024, Vermont-based Ben & Jerry's ( UL ) and its independent board have fought Unilever ( UL ), and now Magnum, in a U.S. District Court in New York over what they say are efforts to undermine the brand's social mission and the board's autonomy.

* The foundation said it decided to join the lawsuit afterMagnum stopped providing it with funding and described thecourt's ruling as an important step in ensuring the foundationcan defend its independence.  * "This is about more than a contract, it's about whether acorporation can weaponise a governance structure and withholdfunding when prior commitments and values become inconvenient,"President of the Ben & Jerry's Foundation Board of Trustees LizBankowski said in a statement.  * Magnum said it was fully committed to Ben & Jerry's,including continuing to fund the foundation. * "The recent steps to update Ben & Jerry's ( UL ) corporategovernance are wholly aligned with the merger agreement andstandard corporate governance across the organisation; nothingmore than that," Magnum said in a statement. "Suggesting ouractions are anything more is just not true; they are not andnever have been." * The Ben & Jerry's Foundation, set up in 1985, usescontributions from Ben & Jerry's ( UL ) to make donations to othernon-profit organisations focused on issues ranging from racialequity to environmental protection.